First review of the year for the contemporary music for guitar and we do it with a cd that introduces music by Toru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett, Lou Harrison and Benjamin Britten. How to say? Not so bad, isn’t it? Compact disc selfmade in 2011 through cdbaby by Giacomo Fiore by whom we have already reviewed last year the valuable Genteel where he played a more traditional repertoire.
Fiore returns on his footsteps with a cd completely devoted to brave scores that shows all of his ability and artistic maturity for the contemporary music. This repertoire certain is not the simplest one: an ideal path of innovation that stirs among "All in Twilight" by Takemitsu, the metaphysics The Blue Guitar by Michael Tippett, Scenes from the Nek Chand for guitar with resonator in Just Intonation tune and the Nocturnal After John Dowland by Benjamin Britten, passages surely of not effortless execution both from the technical and interpretative viewpoint and in which Giacomo Fiore shows abundantly to have put to profit his own studies beside the giant David Tanenbaum.
Beautiful record indeed, I hope that this could only be the beginning for a career that looks with an eye of favor at the contemporary music, we better watch out Giacomo Fiore.

mercoledì 30 gennaio 2013

The world premiere of Dominic Frasca's "John's Not Taken" (commissioned by the New York Guitar Festival). From the New York Guitar Festival's third biennial Guitar Marathon at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufman Auditorium

Recensione di Deviations di Dominic FrascaThis evening 9 PM on Radio Voce della SperanzaDominic Frasca is definitely a great virtuoso of the six strings, if you look on youtube you will find him playing very difficult passages using specially shaped guitars. He had already revealed his talent arranging for electric guitar "Violin Phase" by Steve Reich and now with this record Deviations confirms his talent as a performer in the avant-garde music. A must for those who love contemporary music!Review of Deviations by Dominic Frasca

Recensione di Deviations di Dominic FrascaWedsneday evening 9 PM on Radio Voce della SperanzaDominic Frasca is definitely a great virtuoso of the six strings, if you look on youtube you will find him playing very difficult passages using specially shaped guitars. He had already revealed his talent arranging for electric guitar "Violin Phase" by Steve Reich and now with this record Deviations confirms his talent as a performer in the avant-garde music. A must for those who love contemporary music!Review of Deviations by Dominic Frasca

Few instruments have proved over time to be able to change shape and strategy appropriate to the taste and spirit of the age and country of reference, adapting themselves each time to the new demands and fresh tastes of the society. The Guitars, the instrument par excellence for popular music has also become a small orchestra and the subject of challenge for the interpreters and composers of classical music. This disc, the twelfth of the Stradivarius’s Guitar Collection, focuses on the shape of the renaissance’s guitar through 29 pieces played by the Massimo Lonardi and "caught" in the sixteenth century guitar literature that has managed to overcome the neglect of centuries. These are songs taken from books by Adrian Le Roy, Simon Gorlier, Guillame Morlaye, Gregoire Brayssing, Melchior de Barberis, Miguel de Fuenllana and Pierre Phalèèse and Jean Bellère, expertly mixed together creating a real summa, an anthology of musical forms in vogue in that period: dances, variations on known themes or predetermined harmonic patterns, transcriptions of polyphonic vocal works and ricercari or fantasies in which the composer freely develop his musical style.

The music was performed with two Renaissance guitars, one by Filippo Lesca tuned in A and one by Stefano Solari tuned in E. They are short pieces that range from minute and 10 seconds of Brans de Bourgoigne by Adrian Le Roy to 2 minutes and 34 seconds for Estant assis aux rives aquatiques by Simon Gorlier, musical miniatures, little gems of sound wonderfully played by Massimo Lonardi, with absolute care and philological dedication and with passion and musical virtuosity. Beware dear reader, this is not yet another example of rivival century, here you are not comfortable riding the tiger of a fleeting popularity in the media. This is an excellent disc, by pastel colors, persuasive and light, a pleasure that goes beyond the interest for the collector and the guitarist. It's an album for those who love beauty, for those who appreciate honest work, done both with musical passion and with careful bibliophile research and with painstaking luthier job. Comienca music para guitarra, the guitar has never stopped and continues its journey through time and music. Quality engraving for flawless sound dynamics and timbre, two thumbs up for the directors of the registration Andrea Chenna and Andrea Dandolo.

I have bought this cd in 1999. It was reviewed by the magazine Wire, probably the best magazine to disposition of whom interests of musical avant-garde. I was surprised by the enthusiastic critique of a cd of Renaissance’s music for lute on a magazine that exclusively occupied by avant-garde and contemporary sounds. The fact that then the cd was produced by the Naxos (and therefore to low price) and that it concerned authors of the Venetian school of lute it immediately pushed me to the purchase. To distance of over 13 years I still find great pleasure listening to Christopher Wilson and Shirley Rumsey harping these sweet and sweet musics on their instruments, here they delight us with the compositions of Joan Ambrosio Dalza, Francesco Spinacio, Franciscus Bossinensis and Vincenzo Capirola. Pavane, Calata alla Spagnola, Tastar de Corde are among the titles of the passages that they play more and that they testify the wealth of the Venetian musical school that bloomed in 1500 attracting the best performers of the epoch.
A cd that is simply out of time and that justly didn’t escaped to the experienced ears of the journalists of Wire, in fact what could be better of the circles and of the folds of the Baroque music to put order in the chaos and in the post modernism of our epoch? The two interpreters are good and the recording is impeccable indeed, try these sweet airs and melodies, they will accompany us better in the new year that attends us.

This is the third cd recorded by a guitarist and devoted to the music of the great Thelonius Monk that I have listened to and reviewed in the last two years.. why the music of this pianist, of this giant of jazz fascinate so much guitarists and invite them to measure themselves on the strange alchemies of his standards?

This time is the turn of Elliott Sharp, curious guitar geek from the aerodynamic head and from the unmistakable talent. True veteran "honoris causa" of the downtown scene, Sharp has intelligently and creatively to distribute his own talent among compositions of contemporary music for strings quartets, blues hard-core quintets, electronics, orchestral music, movie soundtracks, avant-garde jazz and guitar’s utopias, everything without a false footstep and giving to himself a perfect reputation and an incredible long discography.

That's why this record with five Monk’s passages completely revisited for acoustic guitar attracts me so much: I hoped in a new vision, in a new original musical perspective. And I have not been disappointed. If I had to make an architectural comparison between this cd and the “classical” way to play Monk’s music I will choose the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao by Frank Gehry compared to the one in New York planned by Frank Lloyd Wright: a gust, new possibilities, new ideas. It already plays as a declaration of intents the fact that otherwise from other things by Sharp here we don't find computer’s effects, noise or feedbacks to which us devotees have been accustomed for a long time, but the "simple" sound of an acoustic guitar.

While the music of Monk will be always the universal "Monk", here Sharp plays it with his finger picking old folk way to play. Surely his immersions into the blues with the Terraplane band has left the sign since Bensha Swing seems to be played by Woody Guthrie and Epistrophy dances on the handle of his guitar to a speed that suddenly makes it unrecognizable. Certainly the jazz's purists as Wyntons Marsalis would have something to say, but this is not “freeze” Monk, this Sharp that plays "his" Monk! In any other way could hear Monk played with a “sharp” guitar slide? And whether to say about 'Round Midnight? The whole history of the jazz is ready to judge a musician for his way to play this standard. Sharp succeeds in providing a new way to play it at the same time simple but completely estranging, a complete revision out ompletely from any canon and leaving the listener with opened mouth.

I have decided to love a lot of this record, wrapped in a beautiful packaging, an irresistible call for a record’s fetishist lime myself. God bless you, Mr. Sharp!

Recensione di Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk! di Elliott Sharp (2006, Clean Feed Records)Wedsneday evening 9 PM on Radio Voce della SperanzaElliott Sharp is one of the most interesting persons moving around the alternative music scene in New York, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, innovator and improviser and composer, last year guest at the Venice Biennale in this record has been able to mix his skills as a guitarist with the innovative jazz of Thelonius Monk and avant-garde music..Review of Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk! by Elliott Sharp (2006, Clean Feed Records)

Neues Kabarett is delighted to present the Marco Cappelli Acoustic Trio giving an encore performance of its project,'O Padreterno nun e` mercante ca pava o' sabbato, which they premiered at the Brecht Forum back in May.

'O Padreterno nun e` mercante ca pava o' sabbato, Neaopolitandialect for “God is not a merchant who pays on the due date”, is a brand new suite of compositions inspired by Italian writer Maurizio de Giovanni and his mysteries. These stories involve the poetic figure of Commissario Ricciardi, a Naples policeman, during the time of the fascist Mussolini regime in 1930s Italy.Tonight's performance is the occasion to welcome the recent English translation of Maurizio de Giovanni's mysteries: more about it on the following link http://www.europaeditions.com/book.php?Id=227

The Marco Cappelli Acoustic Trio explores the "chamber music" sound of Cappelli's classical prepared guitar in combination with Ken's powerful acoustic bass playing and Satoshi's very special set of percussion. The trio was formed back in 2009 by three of most active improvisers in the New York avant-garde music scene and gained a reputation through many appearances in New York's venues as well through a 2011 European Tour. Please check Marco Cappelli Acoustic Trio live on the following links:

Cappelli’s original music for the trio is inspired by mystery literature. Their first CD, Les Nuages en France, was released by Mode Records, the music being based on the characters of French mystery writer Fred Vargas:

Marco Cappelli has led an extraordinary artistic path, first becoming familiar with rigorous written music, then with free improvisation languages. The diversity of Marco’s performances is due to a fascinating array of collaborations (Anthony Coleman, Michel Godard, Butch Morris, Franco Piersanti, Jim Pugliese, Enrico Rava, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp and more) as well in jazz and avant-garde music festivals both as a soloist and in ensemble settings. Among the founders of the acclaimed Italian contemporary music group "Ensemble Dissonanzen", Cappelli currently lives in New York, where he is involved with the contemporary and avant-garde music scene. He is Guitar Professor at Conservatory “Vincenzo Bellini” in Palermo and Music Associate at Columbia University in New York.

Active since the early '80s, bassist Ken Filiano has since contributed to dozens of albums, most of them pertaining to creative jazz -- from post-bop to free improvisation. An educator, the bassist has taught at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), New York State University (Buffalo), UCLA, and Rutgers University. In 2002 Filiano finally released his first solo album, titled Subvenire. The November 2010 release Dreams from a Clown Car marked the recording debut of Filiano’s Quantum Entanglements quartet, featuring saxophonists Tony Malaby and Michaël Attias and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson.

Drummer, percussionist, and arranger Satoshi Takeishi is a native of Mito, Japan. He studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Berklee he developed an interest in the music of South America and went to live in Colombia following the invitation of a friend. He continues to explore multi-cultural, electronics and improvisational music with local musicians and composers in New York.

About Neues Kabarett:

Called "intrepid" and "exemplary" by Time Out New York and lauded by such publications as The Wire and All About Jazz, Neues Kabarett has presented a fascinating combination of artists since 1998. With music ranging from free-jazz to experimental and improvised to through-composed, featuring known instruments to those just invented, the series connects audiences with established and upcoming artists in intimate concerts at its Brecht Forum home and other venues.

The Brecht Forum is a place for people who are working for fundamental social change and a new culture that puts human needs first. The Brecht Forum offers a year-round program of classes, lectures, seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops and language classes in its beautiful home looking out on the Hudson River in historic Westbeth.